Volunteer · unpaid

Owting

A social discovery app for finding people nearby with shared interests — and getting from a match to an actual plan.

Type: Volunteer, unpaid
Product: Owting — social discovery and meetup planning
Contribution: Product design for a small team with no budget and no designer
Live: owting.com

Two map pins joined by a dotted path that meets at a card representing a plan — Matching is the easy half. The plan is where products in this category lose people.

About

Owting was built by a small group for a problem they had themselves: finding people to do things with shouldn't require a dating app, and seeing friends shouldn't require scheduling software. There was no budget and no design team, so I took the design work on as a volunteer.

The problem

Producing a match is the part social products already do well. The drop-off happens in the gap between “we should meet” and a time, a place and a commitment made in front of people you don't yet know. That gap is where the product either becomes a habit or gets deleted.

Designing with nothing

Volunteer work carries a constraint paid work doesn't: everything has to be buildable by people doing it in their spare time. Ambition costs someone their weekend, so the work was to find the smallest design that removes the friction rather than the most complete one.

Where the product loses people — not at the match, at the plan.

See it live →

Owting is a live product. Anything shown here reflects the designs I contributed and may differ from the current release.